Streatham News
Girl, 5, left paralysed by gang's misfire, court hears
4:26pm Monday 6th February 2012
A five-year-old girl was “happily playing” in her uncle’s shop when she was shot in the chest and left paralysed, a court heard today.
Thusha Kamaleswaran, thought to be London’s youngest victim of gun crime, was caught in the crossfire as three masked youths on bikes chased a member of a rival gang, the Old Bailey heard.
She suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be operated on by paramedics at the scene to save her life.
The attack on the evening of March 29 last year also left another innocent bystander, 35-year-old Roshan Selvakumar, with severe scarring and bullet fragments permanently lodged in his head.
Edward Brown QC, prosecuting, said the three defendants, Anthony McCalla, 19, of Streatham, Nathaniel Grant, 21, and Kazeem Kolawole, 19, were members of the Brixton based GAS gang and had planned the attack as part of an ongoing rivalry with the ABM gang from Stockwell.
He told jurors the group gathered in Foxley Square, Stockwell, and travelled to Hammelton Green, where they fired test shots.
They then cycled towards Stockwell Road, pursuing their intended victim, Roshaun Bryan, to an off licence, where he took refuge.
The court heard at about 9pm, Grant, the alleged gunman, fired two or three shots at the shop, which missed their target but hit Thusha and Mr Selvakumar in the chest and the face.
Both were taken to hospital where Thusha’s family were told that, despite Thusha having operations, she would never walk again.
Mr Brown told the court the charge against all three defendants would have been murder if either victim had died.
“The gunman and his accomplices could not have cared less if someone else was shot too,” he said.
“The intent of the gunman was plain. Equally plain was that they were acting as a team. The three defendants were on a determined mission and such a mission did not come out of the blue.”
McCalla, of Oakdale Road, Streatham, Grant, of Camberwell New Road, Camberwell, and Kolawole, of Black Prince Road, Lambeth, deny one count of attempted murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm and a final count of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The trial continues.